Tombstone epitaph., 1887-08-06
A DISMAL OUTLOOK.


 sweep the settlers from the Lower San Pedro, Gila and Salt River valleys, is but one among the many that are being manufactured to gobble up the few remaining acres of Uncle Sam's do- main. The Maxwell grant in New Mex ico has been declared valid by the high est court m the land, though laughed over and sneered at as its companion fraud, the Peral,a, is now in certain quar- ters. This is day of centralization of wealth, power and brains to rob the quiet toiler and the busy home-maker out Of all they possess, and turn them adrlft without food or she,er. It is said that the richest men in the nation are inter- ested in the Peralta grant, that the brightest legal lights have been em- ployed, and that United States Senators and Copgressmen have become interest ed in m. Interested" is good word for these degenerate days it has not the harsh sound of the old word bribery. Nowadays men do not bribe others high in office by giving them money for their votes and influence :; they simply 'inter- est" them by making the official interest ed in the grand scheme, which, by the way, is all right of course. The origina tors will manufacture the title papers.
 We confess we do not know what is to be done about it. All the loose property on the aforesaid grant IS not sufficient to make a successful fight against the brains, the money and the influence of the men who have bought their way into the United States Senate against the will of the majority of the honest voters. We know the land belongs to the settlers; they have dug canals, cleared away the brush and planted orchards and vine- yards. They have converted veritable desert of thirsty sand-a burning cactus plain--irto paradise of living green, of sombre forests, interspersed with running streams, and have settled down in the hope and expectation of spending the evening of their days in the shade of .her own vine and fig tree. But while they have toiled to make the desert bloom like the rose, the land grant fac tory has been running, and grant has been ground out that covers the cottage, the lawn, ihe arbor and the orchard, as well as the towns and cities, where solid brick blocks have been built, where man. nfactories and mills are running.
 Here on the borders of Mexican State we know how these grants are got ten up. To illustrate: there is wine cellar in San Francisco where the choicest Of French wines are produced from the California vintage. The French bottle, covering for the top, label and stamp are used. They are covered with dust and cobwebs 10 give them an ap- pearancc of age. and are finally shipped east in an old French case and sold for the genuine foreign product. The manu- facture of land grants is carried on in a similar manner with this difference: The wine. drinker has just as good and whole some an article as the foreign product, but he has paid four times as much for il as he would had he ordered California wine; while in the land grant case the government is directly swindled out ol untold millions in the sale of her public lands, and ten times as much more in the poverishment of her people.
 The records in Mexico are not kept in books as they are in this country; title papers are often kept in pigeon.holes where one can be removed and another added by dishonest keeper of records without disturbing or disarranging any other record. Hence, If you wish to gel a land grant covering hundreds of thou sands of acres, all you have to do is te get the same kind of parchment used 1T the days of Cortez, make out the gram with the necessary descriptions, sigma tues and seals, besrime it with the dus and cobwebs of ages, e M the San Fran cisco wine cellar, take few thousand dol lars and go to the City of Mexico, ant the thing is done, with the exception o sending a searcher of records to take ; copy of the document, interesting" ; few United States Senators, and getting up syndicate to fight it through to con firmation.
 An alarmist is oftlmes dangerous in dividual in community; bur as Rom' was saved by the quacking of goose may not an humble scribe be permitted to register his firm belief that unles something is done, and done immediate ly, all will be swallowed up by the mon
 ster syndicate, the claimants of the Per ala grant.
 Hx~s~~~nn-a---zszrDs<s
 1t is now settled beyond doubt that "
 are on the eve of revival in mnin
 matters. Recent developments in prop critics of the Grand Central Company notably the Emerald---the purchase c the Old Guard by wealthy Engis
 I | f,t.,